Iranian authorities have stepped up pressure on the opposition with more arrests as the February 14 march proposed by opposition leaders draws closer.
Kaleme website reports that former minister of welfare Mohammadhossein Sharifzadegan was arrested at his home yesterday.
Sharifzadegan is also the brother-in-law of Iranian opposition leader MirHosein Mousavi.
Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi have requested a permit from the ministry of the interior to stage a demonstration on February 14 (Bahman 25 in Iranian calendar) in support of Arab uprisings. Their supporters launched the Bahman 25 page on Facebook, which so far boasts 27,000 members.
Jaras website reports that Saleh Noghrehkar, head of MirHosein Mousavi’s legal committee, was arrested for a second time following the controversial elections of 2009. Salehi is related to Mousavi’s wife, Zahra Rahnavard.
The Society against Education Discrimination website also reported the arrest of Mostafa MirAhamdizadeh, a Qom university professor. He is a member of the Baran foundation run by Mohammad Khatami, Iran’s former president and a reformist. MirAhmadizadeh too had been arrested previously in the crackdown on election protesters.
Rejanews, a state-supported news agency, reports that MirAhamdizadeh has been arrested for “guiding the Ashura protests of last year, for signing a letter in support of Ayatollah Montazeri as well as a letter against the president and for holding numerous meetings with the leaders of the Green Movement.”
Taghi Rahmani, a member of Council of National Religious Activists and a supporter of Mehdi Karroubi in the presidential elections of 2009, was also arrested last night at his home.
Meanwhile, Mehdi Karroubi has been put under house arrest since this morning .
While the interior ministry has issued no official response to the request for a march on February 14, several senior Islamic Republic officials have warned against the rally and described it as a ploy to create divisions among the people of Iran.
